Verdi first composed a section of a Requiem in 1868. This Libera Me was the climactic movement of a Requiem Mass composed in honour of Rossini, and was intended to be created as a collaboration between several notable Italian composers, taking a movement each. While this was eventually completed, it was not performed until 1988.

In 1873 the great Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) died, and Verdi conceived the idea of composing a Requiem Mass entirely on his own, while revising the existing Libera Me movement that had a prominent role for the soprano soloists.

While certainly not an opera, it is a work that the OperaScotland team feels should be included in its listings, partly because of its undoubted operatic qualities, but also because a number of prominent artists, who did not perform opera in Scotland, may be found to have performed this work here.